What is a MAGAZINE?

By:  Shelly Straub, Editor-in-Chief of Connextions Magazine

How can a website or a wordpress blog call themselves a "MAGAZINE?" 

According to wikipedia, the definition is:
"Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications that are printed with ink on paper, generally published on a regular schedule and contain a variety of content."

It takes a few moments to post a photo and a press release of the latest news, into a blog and then blast the content.  This is NOT publishing!  This is only gathering and releasing information in the hopes that someone will find it and click to YOUR site to read it.  This is just a way of gaining hits to your website. 

Reading the following blog post by Mr.Magazine.com, really put it into words, the way I would have expressed my feelings on a "MAGAZINE:" 

"Magazines are much more than content.  Magazines are much more than information, words, pictures and colors all combined in a platform that serves nothing but as a delivery vehicle.  Magazines, each and every one and each and every issue of every one, are a total experience that engages the customers five senses.  Nothing is left to chance.  It is a total package. Without the ink, the paper, the touch, the smell, the look, the taste, it will not be called a magazine.  Every issue is a complete new experience with a sense of ownership, showmanship and membership and is renewed with the arrival of the next issue. The total experience of flipping through the pages of a magazine, looking at the different dimensions, shapes, and other physical properties (including the colors we use on every issue whether it is the famous TIME red border or National Geographic yellow border) create a unique relationship with the customer issue after issue." 

To read the full blog article, click to: http://mrmagazine.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/so-what-is-a-magazine-really-read-on/

Blood, sweat, tears, joy, and every last ounce of energy goes into creating a publication that I call Connextions "MAGAZINE."  The anxiety of waiting for the printer to release the latest issue is at times, exhausting... but so worth it to hold the tangible product and smell the freshly printed pages.

I would be most interested to read your comments on what a magazine is to YOU.

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